Chapter 2
“Did you know?” I burst into my sister Anika’s office.
“That Mom loves me more than you? Yes, I’ve always known,” she said, not bothering to look up from her paperwork.
“Anika, this isn’t a joke.” I slapped my hand onto her desk.
“I can’t help it that you’re a disappointment.” Anika was four years older than me, but you wouldn’t know by the way she was acting or based on the choices she made. We were complete opposites, and although I loved my sister to death, she often gave me heartburn.
“My client today?”
“What about them?” She finally met my gaze. “Oh my God you look like you bumped into a ghost.”
“I did. Today’s client was an oldie but a goodie from my past. And a heads up would’ve been nice.”
“I didn’t schedule your client today so I’m not sure why you’re coming at me all hot.”
“Aldridge Mosley,” I spat out.
Anika’s smile faded and I had her undivided attention. “Aldridge was your one o’clock?”
“Yes.”
She raised her hands in surrender. “I didn’t know anything about that. I’d heard he’d signed to the Ramblers, but I didn’t have a clue he was our new client. I thought you were meeting with someone named Norah or Nancy.”
“Nori is Aldridge’s assistant or something.”
Anika leaned back in her chair, her eyes pinging from my head to my toes. “You wore that?”
I ran my hand over my dress. “What do you mean?”
“It’s just kind of milquetoast.”
I blinked owlishly at her dig. This dress cost me two hundred and fifty dollars. Sorry I didn’t want to wear a skintight bodycon dress while selling houses.
“How’d he look?”
“Grown.” Aldridge was always tall but now his muscles were more defined, and he had an earned swagger to him.
In college he was a big deal, but he always felt like an impostor.
It would appear the impostor syndrome was replaced by confidence times ten.
When we dated, I’d remind him how amazing he was at least once a day.
Apparently, he just needed to remove the braces and pad his bank account to finally believe it.
“Grown and sexy?”
“He’s always been sexy. Time wasn’t going to change that.” Most attractive men just got better with age and Aldridge was no different.
“What did he say?”
“He tried to fire me.”
“Excuse me?” She lifted her watered-down latte to her lips.
“I think he was irritated by my presence.”
“That tracks, I mean you did dump him.”
“I didn’t dump him; I just ended something that was bound to fizzle out.”
“Most women would kill to meet a basketball player in college. Lock him in early.”
“I’m not most women.”
“Yeah, you’re stupid,” My mother, Jemini Irwin, said entering Anika’s office. “You could have been a basketball wife searching for a new home with your husband who just inked a multi-year contract for millions of dollars.”
“I’m doing just fine on my own. Thank you.”
“Yes, but spending someone else’s money is one hundred times more rewarding than spending your own,” Anika said.
“You would know.” On more than one occasion Anika’s clients turned into her next mark. Relationships were transactional to her. She got that mentality from my mother.
“So, I’m assuming you talked him out of firing us?” my mom asked.
“Yeah, I appealed to his pockets. You know he was always financially focused.”
“Yes, that’s why I liked him so much. How you let that man get away I’ll never understand.”
Here we go again. The last thing I wanted to do right now was defend my decisions. “I didn’t let him get away.”
“You’re right about that. You pushed him away.
” This was our MO, we bickered. Sometimes it was jovial, other times it was a bloodbath with one or all of us saying the worst things in hopes of inflicting the most pain.
Trust, I knew we were dysfunctional when at eight years old my mother had me entertain some random man while she changed.
We talked about sports, and he mentioned on more than one occasion that I was filling out nicely.
“Did you know Aldridge was our new client?”
“I did.” Shame wasn’t an emotion my mother was familiar with.
“And you didn’t think it was something I needed to know?”
“If I told you, you would’ve found a reason to back out of it.”
I threw my hands in the air. “Aldridge being my ex was reason enough.”
“I’m sure he was pleasantly surprised to see you.”
“He threatened to fire me, remember. Not exactly rolling out the welcome wagon.”
“That sounds like a man who still has feelings,” Anika said.
“Are you two listening to yourselves? Aldridge hasn’t been secretly pining for me all these years. We’ve moved on and so should both of you.”
“It didn’t work out five years ago, but maybe this time it will be different,” my mother said with a straight face.
“I’m going to sell Aldridge a house because I’m a professional and this could potentially be a fat commission, and after escrow we are closing the chapter on Mr. Mosley.” Pushing past my mother, I exited Anika’s office, heading to my own.
When Aldridge and I split up, my mother told me I was stupid.
She didn’t suggest it, she fixed her lips and pronounced it loud and clear.
In her mind Aldridge was supposed to be my ticket to domestic bliss.
After meeting Aldridge for the first time one winter break, she virtually sunk her claws into him.
Inviting him to every family event and holiday.
We weren’t wealthy but in comparison to Aldridge and his parents, we were well off with a cute house on a street lined with foliage.
Aldridge mused that my life was something he’d only ever seen on television.
For my mother the break up meant letting go of her dream of sitting courtside at her son-in-law’s games dripping in diamonds and the newest designer handbag.
“How could you be so stupid, Danessa? He was right there, and you fumbled the ball.” I didn’t go to school for a husband like some of my White counterparts who were more concerned with getting their MRS rather than a BS.
The last thing I wanted was to coast off Aldridge’s success.
I wanted to make a life based on my own merit.
While being a realtor was never the dream, I was good at it and the money was great.
My mother was a realtor, when I was younger, she would sell modest starter homes to young families, and she did pretty well.
Making enough to purchase a home of her own in a quaint working-class neighborhood.
She made friends with some of the wives in the community, and even though she was a divorcée they welcomed her into their circle.
Which ended up being a mistake because my mother quickly made the rounds fucking their husbands.
Opening my laptop, I pulled up my search engine and entered Aldridge’s name.
A ton of hits popped up. Aldridge Mosley’s net worth, Aldridge Mosley’s college basketball stats, Aldridge Mosley’s girlfriend.
I’m ashamed to admit I clicked on the last entry first. The screen populated with various images, but the picture of him with a blonde-haired, blue-eyed stunner caught my attention.
I knew absolutely zero about her, but a pang of jealousy tugged at my heart.
Clicking on the article, I learned her name was Ashley Castellanos, of course, and she was a fitness influencer.
Was Miss Ashley also making the move to Vegas?
Don’t get me wrong, I was completely over Aldridge, but seeing who he’d moved on with just confirmed what I’d always known.
Closing each open tab, I reached for my dinging phone. It was Anika texting me instead of walking over to my office.
Anika: Sorry about mom.
Danessa: I don’t need you to apologize.
Anika: I know but she was wrong not to tell you.
Danessa: She was.
Anika: I think she meant well.
Danessa: She didn’t and that’s okay.
Anika: Are we still on for tonight?
Anika snagged tickets to the Anjeni concert at the Sphere. And when I say snagged, one of her benefactors gifted them to her.
Danessa: You’re still driving right?
Anika: Yep.
Danessa: Then yes, because I need a drink or two.
The Sphere was a Vegas attraction I told my clients about but never visited myself. Singer Anjeni was having an immersive concert, and the place was filled with Hollywood elites. Anika’s suga daddy must be someone very important to score premium tickets like these.
“So why didn’t your gentleman caller come with you?” I asked, as we settled into our seats.
“It conflicted with some sports thing for one of his kids.”
“He has kids?” I was never good at hiding my feelings, so she was getting my unfiltered reaction. At least when we were on the phone and she was recounting some scandalous story, I could make all the shock and awe faces I wanted.
“Yes two.”
“Have you met them?” My voice was pitching higher with each new detail.
“I don’t think his wife would appreciate that.”
“Wife?” My eyebrows were racing toward my hairline.
“It’s an open marriage, she’s cool.” Anika pulled out a gold compact with her name engraved on the back and reapplied her lipstick before smiling at her reflection, no doubt pleased with what she saw.
“Did he tell you that?” Because men be lying.
“No, she did.”
Did I mention we were polar opposites? Wives were a hard pass.
Kids were even questionable. I was twenty-six and not interested in taking some know-it-all brat to mommy and me classes.
Dating was already difficult enough without adding in other people.
But Anika wasn’t exactly looking to settle down.
She was interested in having fun. Which I could respect, men did this shit all the time.
Why couldn’t the fairer sex join in on the shenanigans?